Part 33 (2/2)
”Of course not,” Madame agreed. ”But the woman wore such a gay costume, and was altogether so reckless that I thought you might have noticed her. Everybody was looking at her. I was told that she is a well-known gambler who has won huge sums at various times, and is invariably so lucky that she is known to habitues of the table as `The Golden Hand.'”
”Everything her hand touches turns to gold--eh?” Zertho hazarded. ”I only wish my fingers possessed the same potency. It must be delightful.”
”But she's not at all a desirable acquaintance, if all I hear is true,”
Madame observed. ”Do you know nothing of her by repute?”
”I fancy I've heard the sobriquet before,” he replied. ”I'm sorry I didn't notice her. Did she win?”
Liane and the Prince exchanged significant glances. ”Yes, while we watched she won, at a rough estimate, nearly twenty thousand francs,”
one of the girls said.
”A friend who accompanied us told us all about her,” Madame observed.
”Hers has been a most remarkable career.It appears that at one time she was well-known in Paris as a singer at La Scala, and the music halls in the Champs Elysees, but some mysterious circ.u.mstance caused her to leave Paris hurriedly. She was next heard of in New York, where she was singing at the music halls, and it was said that she returned to France at the country's expense, but that, on being brought before the tribunal, the charge against her could not be substantiated, and she was therefore released. Subsequently, after a strange and chequered life, she turned up about four years ago at Monte Carlo, and became so successful that very soon she had ama.s.sed a considerable sum of money.
To the attendants and those who frequent the Casino she is a mystery.
For sheer recklessness no woman who comes to the tables has her equal; yet she is invariably alone, plays at her own discretion without consulting anyone, and with a thoroughly business-like air, speaks to scarcely anybody, and always rises from the table at eleven, whether winning or losing. Indeed, `The Golden Hand' is altogether a most remarkable person.”
”Curious,” observed Zertho, reflectively. ”I wish I had noticed her.
You say she was sitting at our table?”
”Yes,” answered one of the girls. ”She sat straight before you, and because you were winning she watched you closely several times.”
”Watched me!” he exclaimed, dismayed.
”Yes,” answered the girl, with a laugh. ”Why, you speak as if she possessed the evil eye, or something! She's smart and good-looking certainly, but I don't think Liane need fear in her a rival.”
”Scarcely,” he answered, with a forced smile. But the alarming truth possessed him that Mariette had surrept.i.tiously watched Brooker and himself before they had discovered her presence. He reproached himself bitterly for having gone to Monte Carlo that night, yet gambler that he was he had been unable to resist the temptation of the tables once again ere they left the Riviera.
But the woman known as ”The Golden Hand” had watched them both, and by this time most probably knew where they were living. Neither he nor the Captain had any idea that Mariette Lepage still hovered about the tables, or they would certainly never have set foot inside the Princ.i.p.ality.
Liane in her cool summer-like gown sat in a low wicker lounge-chair and listened to this description of the notorious woman without uttering a word. She dared not trust herself to speak lest she should divulge the secret within her breast. She had grown uncomfortable, and only breathed more freely when, ten minutes later, they made their adieux and began to descend the Boulevard back to Nice.
”So your old friend Mariette has seen you!” she exclaimed, as soon as they had walked twenty paces from the house.
”Yes,” he snapped. ”Another ill.u.s.tration of my accursed luck. The sooner we leave Nice the better.”
”Very well,” she answered, with a weary sigh. She did not tell him that she had already ascertained from George Stratfield that ”The Golden Hand” had been to Nice.
”We must leave for Paris,” he said briefly. ”It will not be wise to run too great a risk. If she chooses she can make things extremely unpleasant.”
”For you?”
”No,” he answered, turning quickly towards her. ”For you.”
She held her breath; the colour fled from her cheeks. He lost no opportunity of reminding her of the terrible past, and as he glanced at her and watched the effect of his words he saw with satisfaction that he still held her in a thraldom of fear.
”I thought she had left France,” he continued, as if to himself. ”I had no idea that she was still here. Fortune must have been kind to her of late.”
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